Roundup

I refuse to mention the chain by name. But I’m wondering how much this ostensible tale of redemption is undermined by the [Insert Corporation Here] Saved My Life rap. Color me decidedly skeptical. But it would seem to me that this gentleman’s recalibration of his priorities changed his life and not necessarily the chain in question. I am finding, of late, more problems with causative thought (i.e., X caused Y) applied to everyday scenarios. Even people who are much smarter than me seem convinced that they can find correlations without accounting for all the factors that make up a scenario. (And I, by no means, abjure myself from engaging in this fallacy in thinking.) I am wondering why this has grown more acceptable in the United States.

Dan Green on litblogs and serious criticism. I fully agree that the perceived “chatty” quality of litblogs is as broad a brush as declaring all print reviews “stodgy.” Nevertheless, Dan is correct to suggest that litblogs should continue to offer more in the way of “serious criticism,” whatever this might mean. With this in mind, I’m hoping to offer a few more long-form posts very soon.

To proclaim rather reductively that “style should serve to strengthen the author’s message” is to lose sight of the fact that life is ambiguous. If art reflects life, should art not likewise be served in a baroque manner from time to time? (In other words, I can’t abide such childish generalizations about Martin Amis’s work.)